Inside the Locker Room
3/10/2000 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 10, 2000
"Playing in the Big Ten Tournament there's less time to prepare, you're living for the day and trying to survive. After one game is over you have to get ready mentally for another one, and I think that having those early tournaments, playing those tough games early is really going to benefit us because we've been in those situations before. But being in tournament, there's nothing like it because teams who have lower seeds or team who didn't have a great season, now it's a new season for them and if they win this tournament they can get to the NCAA Tournament.
"As a senior and one of the leaders, (taking the big shot) that's something that I look forward to doing. But I have to give credit to my team, they did a great job of finding guys at the right time and coach told me to shoot when I was open so, I took the open shots.
"We knew that last year was a tough game for us and the year before we lost the first game so, going into the game we felt that the first game was always the toughest one and we want to come out and get a win and play hard and I think we made the plays at the end.
"I wanted to start out aggressive on the defensive end, that's what's been the winning the games for us all year. Coach said if you have the open shot, take it, and a couple times early I was open so I took the shot, but for us it starts on the defensive end and with rebounding, that was the real big key for us.
"We try to get our big men started early and open some things up and the last couple games they've been doing that. They've been getting double teamed and finding us for the open shots so, I think we've really been working together."